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Blue Line (mtamaster edition)
The Blue Line is a route that is part of the SIRT division. It is also known as the SIRT Main Line. The line begins at St. George terminal. The terminal station at St. George provides a direct connection to the Staten Island Ferry. At St. George there are twelve tracks, only ten of which are presently used for service on the Blue Line. The departures mainly board on the south platforms. After leaving St. George, the line parallels Bay Street to Clifton, then turns southwest to Tottenville. In general appearance, the Blue Line looks somewhat like an outdoor line of the New York City Subway. Since the 1960s it has been grade separated from all roads, but it runs more or less at street level for a brief stretch north of Clifton, between the Grasmere and Old Town stations, and from south of the Pleasant Plains station to Tottenville, the end of the line. The Blue Line is the oldest line in operation on Staten Island today, being operated for over 150 years. Most lines reopened 120-130 years after the line opened. A connection to the Green line, one of the five newly opened lines, is present after Prince's Bay. History The railway's predecessor, a line between Vanderbilt's Landing (today's Clifton Station) and Tottenville, was incorporated in 1836. An extension of the Staten Island Railway north from Vanderbilt's Landing (today's Clifton Station) had been proposed in the 1870s by the owners of the Staten Island Railroad, George Law, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Erastus Wiman, to replace the various ferry sites on the north and east shores Staten Island. St. George was selected due to it being the closest point from Staten Island to Manhattan, approximately a 5 miles (8.0 km) distance. The name of the terminal and the local neighborhood were renamed to St. George in honor of Law, allegedly as a concession by Wiman in order to build the terminal and connecting tunnel on land owned by Law. An extension of the line to Tompkinsville was opened in 1884, and the underground tunnel between Tompkinsville and the terminal was constructed from 1884 to 1885. The ferry terminal was opened in early 1886, while the rail terminal opened in March of that year. The terminal's entrance building would be opened in 1897. In anticipation of a tunnel under the Narrows to Brooklyn and a connection there with the New York subway system at the Bay Ridge–95th Street station, the SIRT electrified its lines using third rail power distribution and cars similar to those of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). The first electric train was operated on the South Beach Branch between South Beach and Fort Wadsworth on May 30, 1925. The electrification brought no big increase in traffic, and the tunnel was never built. If built, the Main Line would be rerouted to Brooklyn onto the BMT 4th Avenue Line, with the one demolished South Beach Line running the route to St. George. On June 25, 1946, a fire wrecked the terminal at Saint George killing three people and causing damage worth $22,000,000. The fire destroyed the ferry terminal and the four slips used for Manhattan service, as well as the terminal for Staten Island Rapid Transit trains. The replacement terminal would be opened in 1948. The number of passengers decreased from 12.3 million passengers in 1947 to 4.4 million in 1949, due to passengers switching from SIRT to city-operated buses due to a bus fare cut. While the North Shore and South Beach branches were closed by 1953, the Main Line stood up running and became the only rapid transit line on Staten Island until the reopening of the North Shore line in 1973, nearly two decades later. A new, ADA-compliant station named Arthur Kill, near the southern terminus of the present line, opened on January 21, 2017 after numerous delays. The station is sited between, and replaced the Atlantic and Nassau stations, which are in the poorest condition of all the stations on the line. The Arthur Kill station is able to platform a four-car train. The MTA also provides parking for 150 automobiles across the street adjacent to the station. Ground was broken for the $15.3 million station on October 18, 2013. The constructor was John P. Picone, Inc., which was awarded the contract on July 31, 2013. Stations Some local trains start at Huguenot during morning rush hours.